We stopped to snap a few pictures as we drove by this park back on the 5^th.  Today we are “in” for the 17-mile loop drive among the mesas, buttes, and spires.  There are a few nuances to the visit since this place is run by the Navajo Nation Parks rather than he US National Parks Service but the experience is mostly familiar.

We are up before 6am and on the road early hoping for ‘best light’ on the rock formations.  We are through the entry booth (bummers our senior pass is no good here) and on the loop drive before 8. The road is not as bad as many reviews declared but not great either.  Kent makes it around in 2-wheel drive, so not too bad.  Prominent buttes are named, some easily identified like “the mittens” others like “the elephant” require a bit more imagination and a view from just the right angle. It is cool to wind our way among them as shadows change with the rising sun angle.  My favorite is probably the totem pole and adjacent dancers, The Yei Bi Chei. We leave with a lot of pictures!  I am not certain which drive is the more impressive, Monument Valley or Valley of the Gods.  Monument Valley is immense and the raw scale as we move through it makes one feel small in comparison.  The drive through the narrower Valley of the Gods brings us closer to the features making it seem like a more personal experience.  Both could be improved by removing distracting human intrusions: boondocking RVs all over Valley of the Gods and rooftops of homesteads among the buttes of the Tribal Park.  Both have tipped too far in the scale balancing right-to-use and preservation, in my opinion.  But yes, I too would have loved to have spent a silent night under a star-filled sky in Valley of the Gods.